The wheel of Sadhana according to Shrimad Bhagawad Geeta

According to Bhagawan Shri Krishn in Shrimad Bhagawad Geeta the Karm (action) is One Paramaatma Sadhana. The wheel (cycle) of this One Paramaatma Sadhana is to grow the divine qualities (virtues) in our heart and those divine qualities will strengthen us. One Paramaatma Sadana is also called as yagnya. To implement the process of One Paramaatma worship or Sadhana or Yagnya is Karm (action). A Sadhak sratrs One Parmaaatma Sadana to realize One Paramaatma and One paramaatma can always be attained by One Paramaatma Sadhana (Yagnya or action). Let us study various shlok (verses) of Shrimad Bhagawad Geeta that explain this idea.

Having created mankind in the beginning together with sacrifice (Yadnya) Lord Brahma said, “By this you should propagate; this shall be the milch cow of your desired subjects and objects.

At the beginning of kalp-the course of Self-realization Prajapati Brahma shaped yagya along with mankind and enjoined on them to ascend by yagya which could give them what their hearts aspired to.

Prajapati Brahma, the god presiding over creation, made mankind along with yagya at the beginning and told men to progress through yagya. This yagya, wholly propitious, was prescribed or ordained as the action which would satisfy their hunger for realization of the eternal God.

Kalp - Usually meaning 1000 yug (ages), making up a period of 432 million years of mortals, kalp also signifies a process of treatment for restoration of health (kayakalp). So kalp here means the whole course of self-realization.

Brahma - Another epithet of the deity presiding over creation as well as of a true ascetic. He also is a pati, the lord and saviour. Like the deity he, too, prescribes a course of meditation. He is like a monarch and his disciples are his subjects. Thus prajapati here is the man of perfection who has become a transmitter of God’s essence.

Who was the creator of mankind along with yagya? Was it Brahma and who is he? Is he, as it is believed, the God with four heads and eight eyes? According to Krishn there are no beings like gods. The sage who has realized and become one with the Supreme Spirit, the fountainhead from which all mankind has arisen, is ‘‘prajapati.” Wisdom that results from knowledge of God is itself Brahma. At the moment of this realization the mind becomes a mere instrument. It is God himself who then speaks through the voice of the sage.

There is constant growth of wisdom after the commencement of spiritual adoration, or worship. Since at the beginning this wisdom is endowed with knowledge of God, it is called brahmvitt. Gradually, as evil impulses are subdued and the knowledge of God is enriched, this wisdom is said to be brahmvidwar. As it ascends yet higher and gets more refined, it comes to be known as brahmvidwariyan. At this stage, the sage who is blessed with knowledge of God also achieves the capacity to bring others on to the way of spiritual growth. The highest point of wisdom is brahmvidwarisht, that state of divine inundation in which the spirit of God flows through it like a crystal current. Men who have attained to this state enter into and dwell in the Supreme Spirit from whom all mankind is born. The minds of such sages are mere instruments and it is they who are called “prajapati.” By dissociating themselves from the contradictions of nature, they create the Self who is yet unaware of the process of meditation or God’s worship. Conferring perfection which is in accordance with the spirit of yagya is the creation of mankind. Prior to this human society is unconscious and chaotic. Creation has no beginning. Sanskar has always been there: but before the sages conferred perfection on it, it was deformed and in a state of anarchy. To shape it in accordance with the requirements of yagya is the act of refining and adorning. Some such accomplished sage or sages created yagya besides creating mankind at the beginning of kalp, the course of Selfrealization.

The word ‘‘kalp,” however, also means cure of sickness. Physicians effect such cures and there are some who even rejuvenate us. But their remedies are only for ephemeral bodies. The true cure is that which provides liberation from the general malady of the world. The beginning of worship or adoration is the commencement of this remedy. When meditation is complete, we are wholly cured.

Thus sages with their beings in the Supreme Spirit gave a proper shape to spiritual excellence and yagya, and instructed men that they would prosper through the observance of yagya. By this prosperity they did not mean that clay houses would change into brick-and-plaster mansions. Neither did they promise that men would begin to make more money. They rather wished men to know that yagya would fulfil their God-inclined aspirations. A logical question that confronts us here is whether yagya leads to immediate attainment of God or only by gradual steps. Brahma further said to mankind :

Cherish the gods with this; and may those gods cherish you; thus cherishing one another, you shall attain the supreme good.

And may you cherish gods by yagya and may gods foster you, for this is the means by which you will finally achieve the ultimate state.

Cherishing gods by yagya means fostering sacred impulses. And that is also how gods foster mankind. Thus, by mutual augmentation men will ultimately achieve that final bliss after which there is nothing more to achieve. The deeper we enter into yagya (later yagya will be explained as a way of worship), the more is the heart enriched with divinity. The Supreme Spirit is the only God and the means-the impulses-that provide access to that God are the ‘‘divine treasure’’ because they bring the ultimate God within reach. This, rather than the commonly imagined gods such as a piece of stone or mass of water, is the true divine wealth. In Krishn’s words such gods have no existence. He further adds:

Cherished by acts of sacrifice (Yadnya) gods shall bestow on you the desired enjoyments.” He who enjoys what is given by them (gods) without returning (offering) them anything, is indeed a thief.

The gods you foster by yagya will shower upon you without asking all the joys you wish for, but the man who avails himself of these joys without having paid for them is truly a thief.

The divine riches we earn and store by yagya will give us nothing else besides joys related to the revered God. They are the only powers which give. There is no other way to attain to the adored God. The man who tries to enjoy this state without making an offering of divine riches, the righteous impulses, is doubtlessly a thief who is given nothing. And since he gets nothing, what is there for him to enjoy? But he pretends all the same that he is perfect, a knower of the essence. Such a braggart is shy of the path of righteousness and so he is truly a thief (albeit an unsuccessful one). But what do the attainers gain?

From food beings come, from rain food is produced; from Yadnya rain proceeds; Yadnya is born of karma.

All beings get their life from food (Brahman), food grows from rain, rain emerges from yagya, and yagya is an outcome of action.

All creatures are born from food. Food Is God himself whose breath is life. A man turns to yagya with his mind fixed on that divine manna. Food results from rain: not the rain that falls from clouds, but the shower of grace. The yagya which have been undertaken and stored earlier themselves come down as a shower of grace. Today’s worship is given back to us as grace the next day. That is why yagya is said to generate rain. If an indiscriminate oblation or offering to all of the so-called gods and burning of barley grains and oil seeds could produce rain, why should deserts have remained barren? Thus rain here is the shower of grace that is an outcome of yagya. This yagya, again, arises from action and is indeed brought to completion by action.

Food represents the lowest form in which the Supreme Spirit is manifested. The idea of God as food recurs through the Upanishad. In the Upanishad Prashn, the sage Pippalad says, “Food is Pran (the primal energy) and Rayi (the giver of form). From food grows seed, and from seed are born all creatures.” According to the Upanishad Taittiriya, “Out of Brahm (God), who is the Self, came ether; out of ether, air; out of air, fire; out of fire, water; out of water, earth; out of earth, vegetation; out of vegetation, food; out of food, the body of man.

Know that action (Karma) arises from the Veda and the Veda from the Imperishable. The all pervading Veda is therefore ever centered in Yadnya.

Be it known to you that action arose from the Ved and the Ved from the indestructible Supreme Spirit, so that the allpervasive, imperishable God is ever present in yagya.

Arjun is told to remember that this action is born from the Ved. The Ved is the voice of sages who live in God. The vivid perception, rather than cramming of certain verses, of the unmanifest essence is named Ved. The Ved is born from the imperishable God. The truths of the Ved have been proclaimed by great souls, but, since they have become one with God, the imperishable God himself speaks through them. It is for this that the Ved is said to be of divine origin. The Ved came from God. And the sages, being one with Him, are only instruments. It is he whose spokesmen they are. God manifests himself to them when they have restrained the desires of their mind by yagya. The omnipresent, ultimate, and imperishable God is, therefore, always present in yagya. So yagya is the only way to attain to him. This is what Krishn tells Arjun:

In this world, he who does not follow the wheel thus revolving, is living in sin and rejoicing in the senses, O Arjuna, he lives in vain.

The man in this world, O Parth, who loves sensual pleasure and lead an impious life, and does not conduct himself in accordance with the thus prescribed cycle (of Self realization), leads but a futile life.

The pleasure-loving, sinful man who, despite his birth in human form, does not conduct himself in keeping with the means of the ordained action or, to put it differently, does not follow the way of attaining to the state of immortality through fostering gods and so also himself by tending the divine riches of his nature, lives but in vain. For the sake of recapitulation, Krishn named “action” in Chapter 2, whereas in this chapter he has told Arjun, and so all of us, to perform the ordained action. Observance of yagya is this action. Whatever else is done besides this is only a part of worldly life. So one should, in a spirit of detachment, perform the action of yagya. Krishn has then given an account of the characteristic features of yagya and said that yagya had its origin in Brahma. Mankind is inclined to yagya with sustenance in view. Yagya arises from action and action from the divinely inspired Ved, whereas the visionaries who perceived the Vedic precepts were enlightened sages. But these great Souls had shed their ego. With this attainment, what was left as an outcome was only the imperishable God. The Ved is therefore arisen from God and God is ever existent in yagya. The impious lover of sensual pleasures who does not follow the way of this prescribed action lives in vain. That is to say that yagya is an action in which there is no comfort for the senses. The injunction demands participation in the act with complete subjugation of the senses. Sinful are they who yearn for sensual comforts.

Thus, one has to follow the wheel of Sadhana (One Parmaaatma worship) to realize One Paramaatma. The cycle is to acquireor grow divine qualities in the heart, perform One Paramaatma Chintan (Karm) and in turn that strenghtend the Sadhak (worshipper). The one who does not act according to this Sadhana wheel (chakra) lives in vain.